Something in the yard…

Something – some critter, it must be – is creeping into my backyard at night from the woods beyond the fence. Usually it stays beyond the fence, but twice now the dog has scrambled down the deck steps and sprinted across the yard to chase it. I have not seen it. The beam of my flashlight barely reaches to the fence, and until I can identify the critter, I am not going to move closer. Still, dim as the flashlight is, it bothers me that I haven't even seen a shape. Bigger than a cat, and smaller than a deer, my ears tell me. And fast, when the dog barrels after it. That rules out possum, and probably skunk and raccoon. It might be a large neighborhood cat. I would love to think so. It might be a coyote. I did see one once, in daylight, a couple of years ago. Why my yard, though, when the yard next door is wooded nearly to the back door? What is it doing, watching, waiting for? Whatever it is, it is, to quote Jayne Cobb, seriously "starting to damage my calm".